There is an approach in the 21st-century Islamic world that holds classical legal reasoning to be erroneous, excludes the tradition of usul al-fiqh, and in general attempts to understand Islamic religion directly from the nass of Qur’an and Sunnah and to produce knowledge accordingly. This way of understanding can be reasonably described as “Textual Islamism”. Even though this form of religious understanding and interpretation emerged in the modern era, it is not a mindset that Muslims have been entirely strangers to. There are similarities between the Ahl al-Hadith and Salafiyah mentality, which has resurfaced and consolidated from time to time as a school of scholarly thought from the early periods of Islamic history, and some movements emerging in the modern period. These similarities and connections show that certain aspects of these modern movements were shaped by inspirations from classical Salafism. Though there are some differences between these forms of thinking that stretch far back into the past, they all share the claim of a return to the primary sources of Islam. Adopting an outlook here described as Textual Islamism, the movements hold in common the wish to move away from usul al-fiqh reasoning, trivialize tradition and dismiss the schools of fiqh as legitimate means of understanding and interpreting Islamic sources to properly practice one's faith.
There are also significant parallels between the approach of those who present themselves as progressive and modern and Salafi thought, which has reductionist tendencies and defends the idea of returning to religious roots by rejecting historical experiences as useless and seeking only a single form of truth. The common mindset between Protestantism, which advocates the return to the sacred texts, and Salafi movements is also striking. Concentrating on the nass by both declining fiqhî thought and the accumulation of knowledge, and in a sense attempting to open a space for itself by taking sanctuary in the authority of the sacred text, it is worth discussing how the Salafi movement gave rise to a breach in Islamic thought.
Based on these motives, the symposium will examine the bases, aims, possibilities, risks and arguments of Salafi thought, which appears as a form of ‘Textual Islamism’ and has become widespread in Turkey as well as many other Islamic countries. In the first place, some of the Salafi tendencies represented by past scholars, such as Ibn Hazm and Ibn Taymiyyah, will be examined and the origins of this scholarly understanding will be explored. In the second place, the Salafist model that emerged around the ideas of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the underlying reasons of its advent, and the views of those who to various extents adopted it, like al-Shawkani and Dehlawi, and their influence today will be discussed. The symposium examines how Hadith movements predating the 18th century laid the foundation for modern Salafism and how the influence of this school can be seen on the first generation of scholars in Islamic thought growing under Western influence beginning from the early 20th century, such as Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Riza, and their students.
In addition, during the transition from madrasa to university, it is possible to observe changes in the conception of fiqh in the emergence of new educational institutions and recent educational programs. A new approach to usul al-fiqh that arose with new works on usul in the early 20th century and the reformulation of these works as textbooks at Al-Azhar University, stands out among the expressions of this transformation in what can be interpreted as an effort to reconcile tradition with the Salafi discourse as this form of education resulted in the adoption of a softened understanding of Salafism. Along with these works, the change in perception regarding the purpose of usul al-fiqh, as well as the quests for a new usul and ways of understanding require critical examination. In this way, replacing the classical discourse, the birth of a modern one, its characteristics, and repercussions in the Islamic world will be revealed. The aim of the symposium is analysis and criticism of the paradoxes of contemporary Textual Islamism especially in terms of usul al-fiqh after a historical survey of Salafi Islam, taking also the relation between modernism and Salafiyah into consideration.